The General Services Administration is launching the second phase of the Making Mobile Gov Project tomorrow, focusing on 10 separate challenges facing government mobile, GSA Mobile Director Gwynne Kostin announced at FedScoop’s MobileGov: Citizen Engagement on the Go this morning.
The agency will release one challenge each day for the next 10 working days to start a dialogue among government mobility thought leaders and innovators on how to approach each issue. The third phase of the program will launch in mid-July, looking to shape the future of mobile government.
“When it comes to mobility, people don’t check their expectations at the door when it comes to dealing with the government,” Kostin said. “They want the same experience they have in the rest of the world and our goal is to meet their expectations.”
Kostin said GSA has more than 60 apps in the agency’s app store with more being added each week, trying to tap into the 82 percent of adults that have a cell phone and the astounding 96 percent of people aged 18-29 that have a mobile device.
“The thing we say with mobile is forget about last week because everything is in the future,” Kostin said.
For instance, she said the Android was expected to overtake the iPhone in consumer sales in the third quarter of this year, but it happened in the first quarter. And people use their devices for things beyond a phone or even a camera with things like GPS, texting, video and web (leading to a shortage of bar talk as now all factual arguments can be settled with a few clicks on the phone).
She also said there will someday (maybe soon) where a person will no longer need their wallet or keys when they leave the house because those things will all be contained in one mobile device.
“There is so much innovation happening every day,” Kostin said. “Our goal with government is tapping into that and using the mountain of government data to create mobile apps and programs that make life better for citizens.”
